Where Demons Hide
by mercutios
Summary: At 20, Aspen is failing at this whole "normal thing". All she wants is some semblance of normalcy, but she isn't nearly that lucky. And now demons from her past are coming back to haunt her. Can she face them in time? Rating is up for change.
1. 01

**Ok, here's the thing, I wrote the first two chapters of this a year ago before giving up on it. Since then my writing style has changed and improved, I'd decided to give this a second chance. However, this isn't going to take priority, so don't expect quick updates. Regardless of past Me's cringe, I hope you enjoy this train wreck.**

Aspen Reid stood in front of her apartment building as she surveyed the damage. It was bad. A lot worse than she thought it would be.

When her friend called her, and told her about the damage Ultron's robots did to their neighborhood, Aspen had naïvely assumed that it did not mean her apartment building had been completely wrecked. Unfortunately, the young genius was wrong.

"I leave on a business trip for one week, _one week_ , and this happens," she mumbled, resisting the strong urge to punch someone. Aspen puffed air into her cheeks and went over her options.

She couldn't stay at a friend's place, considering they all had similar issues that she had. All the hotels in the area were super expensive. Since everyone in her building would be looking for a new apartment, it would be difficult to find a place right away. And it's not like she had family to stay with, so that left one option...

Aspen sighed and pursed her lips. She really didn't want to, but what other choice did she have?

Swallowing her ego, Aspen picked up her phone. She scrolled through her contacts until she found the name she was looking for. Tony Stark: genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

Aspen said one last goodbye to her dignity before hitting call. He answered almost immediately.

"Hey, Penzie, it's been a while since you checked in. You never call, you don't write, I got worried!" Ah, there it was. The stupid nickname Tony had given her, saying her name was too long, which didn't make much sense, considering 'Penzie' was actually a letter longer than 'Aspen'.

The young woman rolled her eyes at the billionaire's sarcasm before replying, "I've been pretty busy. But that's not why I called. Remember after Afghanistan you said if needed a place to crash I could stay with you? Well my apartment's kind of blown to bits so I was wondering-"

"Say no more, Penz, you can stay at the tower. I'll send my jet over to pick you up tomorrow. You're in South Korea now, right?"

"Yeah, Seoul," Aspen confirmed, stunned he agreed right away.

"All right, the jet will be there at ten tomorrow. See you later."

And with that, Stark hung up.

 _Okay_... Aspen thought, that wasn't so bad. _Maybe this won't be too horrible after all._

 _•••_

"So... Are you going to stay with Stark or something?"

Aspen looked at her friend and raised her eyebrows. "No, I'm going to Hogwarts. Of course, I'm going to stay with Stark, Rya. Where else could I go?"

"Well... Umm... I guess you have a point."

Aspen flopped down on the bed adjacent to her friend's. Shortly after calling Stark, she had met up with her friend, Arya Wylder. They both contributed cash to rent a hotel room for the night. "So, who are you going to stay with?"

"Livia said I could live with her until I find another place." Arya replied. "The flight is going to take forever." Aspen had never met the blonde in person; they had only talked through Skype. If she remembered correctly, Rya and Livia were college roommates before Arya moved to Seoul for an animal rescue program.

Snapped out of her thoughts, Aspen nodded in agreement. "I'm in the same boat as you. Why the heck did I decide on Korea anyway?"

The short brunette paused before thinking of an answer. "Knowing you, it was probably for the food."

"Yeah, food was definitely a reason."

The two women stayed quiet for a moment, neither knowing what to say.

Aspen broke the silence, asking a question she had been dreading.

"Do you know how many people died?"

Arya sighed, thinking of a way to phrase her response. "I'm not completely sure, it might not be that many-"

"How many people, Arya?"

Aspen's friend closed her eyes and began to speak. "I think it was about one hundred fifty dead and two hundred or so injured."

The young genius froze at the additional information. "One hundred fifty dead, two hundred injured," she mumbled. "One hundred fifty dead-"

"Aspen, I know what you're thinking. It's not your fault!" Arya exclaimed, trying to reassure her friend.

"Yes, Rya, it is," Aspen argued. "The only reason Ultron would've came to this part of Seoul is for my research. And when he didn't find it, he took his anger out on the city, or the street our apartment buildings is-sorry _was_ on, to be more accurate."

"Come on, Penzie," Arya said, sitting up to face her friend and addressing her with the nickname she dreaded. "Use that 180 IQ of yours and think about this logically. If Ultron found your research, think of all he could have done with it. He would have been even more of a threat."

Aspen sighed. Her friend did have a point. But she still couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for the destruction Ultron had caused. "That does make sense, but what if-"

"Aspen, stop it. It's not your fault," Arya stated, cutting her friend off.

The two friends were silent for a minute or two, then Arya made a decision.

"I know what you need to feel better-ice cream."

Aspen raised her eyebrows at her friend's statement. She had always known Rya was a bit odd, but it never bothered her. The two balanced each other out, like yin and yang. Arya, being crazy, random, and outgoing, while Aspen was calm, collected and quiet. (Well, most of the time.) When one was insecure, the other was confident. Aspen found it nice to have someone to have her back, to support her.

"So... Ice cream, is that a yes or a no?" Arya questioned, snapping the young genius out of her reverie. "I mean, you're just sitting there with your 'what the heck is wrong with this chick' face, and I can't tell what you want."

Aspen sighed, which is something she was doing a lot lately. "I don't know, it's not really the best time for that kind of thing."

"Come on, Asp, it'll be fun." Arya persisted, "One last hoorah before we go our separate ways. We can even go to that bookstore you like. So, what do you say."

Aspen allowed herself a small smile. "You had me at bookstore.".

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's blow this Popsicle stand!" Arya exclaimed, springing up from her seat.

The excited girl's companion got up as well, grabbing her bag. "Before we go, there's on last think I have to tell you."

Rya stopped halfway through the door of the hotel room. "What's that?" She asked.

Aspen grinned, "Don't call me Penzie."

And with that, the two set off.

 **So, there it is, I hope this wasn't as bad as I thought. Let me know what you think in the comments! Should I continue this or should I start something else entirely? I'd love to hear what you think.**


	2. 02

**Here's the next chapter. I only own Aspen and the plot. I forgot to mention this earlier, but Arya belongs to a friend. That's all until the end of the chapter!**

 _She asked me, "Son, when I grow old,_

 _Will you buy me a house of gold?_

 _And when your father turns to stone,_

 _Will you take care of me?"_

Aspen hummed along to the Twenty-One Pilots song as scrolled through the list of apartments in New York. Since her flight was going to be extremely long, she had decided to at least try to be productive.

She had decided to stay in Manhattan, considering she hadn't lived in the U.S. since she was eighteen. Aspen had made a habit moving from moving country to country. It was probably because of her time with HYDRA. When she was shipped off to various parts of the world to build weapons. Even after she was free, Aspen couldn't stand the thought of staying in one place for too long.

Screw it, Aspen thought, casting her tablet aside. I can do this later. She shifted, looking out the window, gazing at the puffy white clouds below. Aspen had to admit, she was excited to see Tony and Pepper again, but she despised the idea of needing help.

 _I will make you queen of everything you see,_

 _I'll put you on the map,_

 _I'll cure you of disease._

As the song ended, Aspen pushed her thick, dark rimmed glasses back up her nose. She had contemplated wearing contacts, but she woke up early and didn't feel like poking her eyes out.

Aspen and Arya had said their farewells at the airport, promising to text and Skype. Well, Aspen promised to text and Skype while Rya practically squeezed the death out of her in a goodbye hug.

Aspen picked up her tablet again, this time to check her email, considering the notifications were in the thousands.

Among the mess of seeming endless messaging, (Most of which was from Tumblr.) she found something she didn't expect, an email from one of the weapon program kids.

It was from Nicole (Or Nic as she liked to be called.) the only other girl in the group. There are five of them total. Well, there were five until Moscow incident.

No, Aspen thought, scolding herself, don't think about him. She knew if she started thinking about her lost friend she wouldn't be able to stop.

Looking back at the email, Aspen saw that it was just Nic making sure she was okay.

 _Asp, I heard about the bombings. Are you safe? Is Arya alright? What about her cat? I'm assuming you're going to stay with Stark, but if you ever stop by Miami, feel free to crash at my place. Are you still coming to Vegas in August? Olli and Benjamin both said they're going. Call me when you can._

 _-Nic_

Aspen grinned as she remembered her plans in August. With everything that had happened, the trip to Las Vegas completely slipped her mind. Every year, the remaining weapon program kids all met up somewhere for a week to catch up on everything that had happened. The four took turns picking every year. Last year Aspen picked the Hawaii, and this year Olli chose Las Vegas.

The sweater wearing scientist reached into her bag, pulling out a thick book. It was the latest Outlander novel, _Written in My Own Heart's Blood_. She quickly immersed herself in the adventures of Jamie and Claire.

•••

Aspen placed her dark blue book mark between the pages and snapped the novel shut, she had been reading her book for four hours straight and was already a little over halfway through. The blonde woman tossed the paperback into her bag checking her watch.

 _4:48_

"Seven hours down, three to go.", She mumbled, staring down at the bright blue numbers.

Aspen figured if she slept now, she wouldn't be as jet lagged later. So, she curled up in the seat, closed her eyes, and let sleep take her.

•••

 _A twelve-year-old Aspen Reid stared at the monitor, brown eyes focused on the slightly blurred, black and white screen. It was security footage from a government building in Moscow. She gripped a radio in her right hand, knuckles turning white._

 _The blonde pushed the button on her radio that allowed her to speak to her friend._

 _"HQ to initiate, what's your status?". Aspen hated using those terms. They seemed cold and unattached, but they were protocol; and not abandoning protocol had been drilled into her head by HYDRA since she was old enough to understand it. She didn't want to know what would happen if she broke the rules._

 _It didn't take him long to respond._

 _"Everything is going to plan. Planting the bomb now."_

 _The dark-haired figure turned to the camera, giving Aspen a thumbs up and a cheeky grin. He bent down, pushing the last few buttons on the device the two had constructed the day before, activating it._

 _"Looks like we're all clear, I just might m- Wait, somethings wrong." Her friend resembled a deer caught in headlights, frozen in fear. "The countdown, it's moving too fast!"_

 _In an instant Aspen had turned to her keyboard, typing up a storm, desperate to find a way out. She pulled up blueprints, satellite images, anything that could help her friend._

 _"If you go down the hallway, make two right turns and then a left there's an emergency exit, if you run fast enough you should be able to make it just outside the blast radius."_

 _As soon as the words left her mouth, he had taken off running, bursting through the door and into the hallway. But he just wasn't fast enough. When he was only ten feet away from the door, Aspen heard a loud boom and that was it. The security feed had been cut off._

 _She tried her radio._

 _"HQ to initiate, are you able to respond."_

 _She was met with static._

 _Abandoning protocol, she called his name._

 _Still no response._

 _Aspen tried again, and again until she realized the truth. She choked back a sob._

 _He was gone._

•••

Aspen woke up in a cold sweat, her heart racing. She had been reliving the night in her dreams for years now. It must have been her unconscious's way of reminding her it was all her fault. That she could have stopped it.

Pushing the negative thoughts out of her mind, Aspen dug through her bag to find her tablet and headphones. When she was successful she slid her purple and black headphones over her ears and found an album to listen to. Within seconds another Twenty-One Pilots song was playing.

 _I ponder of something great_

 _My lungs will fill and then deflate_

 _They fill with fire_

 _Exhale desire_

 _I know it's dire_

 _My time today_

Aspen sighed and looked out the window, watching the clouds as the plane flew by.

 **And that's a wrap on the second chapter! I know I've been super vague about Aspen's general backstory—I'll go into more detail about it eventually, but I have to keep a lot under wraps for plot purposes. Also, thanks to Kaytak1999 for the comment. Hopefully the next chapter will be out in a few days!**


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